The present invention relates generally to closures used on automotive vehicles and more particularly to bumpers that are used on vehicle closures such as hoods and liftgates.
While operating a vehicle, the vehicle's liftgates may tend to move in their body openings, thus potentially creating undesirable noise and possibly damage to the vehicle. For example, liftgate chucking, which is a rattle condition that occurs during vehicle operation causing hard contact between a latch and striker, may sometimes occur. This situation is typically avoided by using wedge systems with the liftgate. Liftgate wedges are devices that provide additional constraint of the liftgate to improve the stability of the liftgate within the opening. The additional constraint tends to reduce unwanted noise, squeaks and rattles. However, these wedge systems are difficult to align and typically only provide marginal control over the movement of the liftgates in their openings.
In addition, for some vehicles, the corners of the hood may have a tendency to lift at high vehicle speeds due to aerodynamic loads. This condition is sometimes addressed by employing wedges, bumpers or additional latches. However, wedges and bumpers tend to only constrain the hood in one or two directions and are difficult to adjust, where too much contact causes high closing efforts and too little contact substantially reduces their effectiveness.